Today we were lucky enough to speak with the very nice local game developer and founder of Woodpenny studios, Pat King! Pat has lived and worked in the Valley for years, first with Hitpoint Studios and now with his own Woodpenny studios!

Woodpenny makes digital and physical objects and all of them are really neat. Right now, they’re working on a great VR music-video thing. Like, basically VR is a real functional interesting thing now, and that’s neat. So what Woodpenny did is team up with excellent musician Ben Sollee and create this awesome VR sort of music video/theme park ride called “Vanishing Point”. We got to try an early version and it is both trippy as heck and a heck of a trip!

Pat King: Short answer – the mother of my 2 little girls. Longer answer – My wife grew up in Northampton. I’m a Kentucky boy. When I was 25, I took on a short term contract as tour manager for a chamber orchestra in Ireland. My (now) wife was getting her masters degree at the University of Limerick. We met in Ireland through mutual friends and ended up kind of liking each other. My plan after Ireland was to attend the Vancouver Film School. Her plan was to do something other than that, preferably closer to New England.

At this point, I really liked her…and you know, Vancouver is really far away and it’s more school debt and Northampton has this place called Herrell’s Ice Cream. After weighing those options, I decided to move to the area! Now I have a beautiful family and a fantastic community. [This is adorable, readers – Ed.]

JO: Is it difficult to work on game development in such a relatively small area? I’m used to hearing about development shops being set up in major cities.

PK: Tricky question, from a studio’s perspective, there are key advantages to running a studio in both the Pioneer Valley and larger cities such as Boston.

Larger cities (especially ones with an established game, tech or other creative media presence) usually generate more resources for studios. Typically there are multiple established game studios, more experienced game professionals, more money and investment opportunities, creative agencies, culture, community, etc.

That said, the Pioneer Valley does have some stunning talent, longtime industry professionals and general resources that you find in larger cities. Game Industry Studios such as HitPoint, Anzovin, and HappyGiant have been chugging along for a number of years. Additionally, we have a huge tabletop game design community as well as numerous software, hardware, graphic, web and other creative development teams. There are other tech and software communities that offer networking events and forums. There are more colleges than you can shake a stick at that offer a constant flow of new talent to the area.

So far, I’ve found living in the Pioneer Valley works well with my style of game development. I’ve been lucky to have made some great contacts along the way that allow me to work away from the larger cities. Part of that is also attending larger events in Boston and New York and building those connections.

The most difficult part of game development is just knowing where to start. You could be a killer programmer, artist or designer, but without the experience of an active studio, it’s most likely very difficult to connect all the pieces and make a full studio.

JO: Is that why you set up the Pioneer Valley Game Developers (PVGD) group? To bring together people who might be too dispersed to meet up without an excuse?

PK: Exactly. After leaving HitPoint Studios, I found that those interested in game development were pretty dispersed throughout the Pioneer Valley. While I was able to connect with tech industry leaders, there weren’t many people being proactive in the gaming community at large. John Tuttle and I had both worked at HitPoint and wanted to find other developers interested in digital game development. We formed the PVGD in order to find others with similar interests to help make games and hopefully create the community that our area had been lacking.

JO: How do you make certain PVGD is a welcoming place for new people?

PK: Our format so far has been to offer monthly networking events called MAKE TALK PLAY. We usually host them at a “barcade” called The Quarters. We have presentations by local industry leaders covering a broad range of development topics in order to appeal to the largest range of developers in the region. Then after the presentations we hang out, talk about game development and encourage people to demo their own projects.

JO: You left work at a local studio to found your own – Woodpenny. Why did you set out on your own?

PK: HitPoint Studios was a beautiful place to grow as a developer. I was there from the beginning and it was probably one of the best work experiences of my life. I completely respect Paul Hake and Aaron St. John for all they have accomplished and the process they’ve gone through to create a successful studio in the Pioneer Valley. About four months before I left, my wife had started a full time job and we had been struggling to figure out how to balance our work and family schedule. The ultimate decision to leave wasn’t to start a studio, but to take some time off to let me wife focus on her work and be a part-time stay at home dad.

However…I’m not one to stay still. I had a couple days throughout the week to myself and started testing my skills as a woodworker recreating a game my father built when I was a child called penny basketball. This is where I came up with the name Woodpenny. Soon, I started taking on some graphic and sound design projects and then I was approached by an old friend about creating a simple mobile game for his marketing agency. I wasn’t really looking to start a game studio at the beginning, but at that point the work was just kind of finding me, so I decided to roll with it.

JO: What has been your biggest challenge so far putting Woodpenny together?

PK: I think the hardest part so far has been trying to figure out exactly what to focus on. I really want to make wooden board games, but after about 9 months of experimenting, I realized that in order to make the boards efficiently, I would need a proper workshop. I’m currently working from my home basement, which is damp and dusty. This makes me constantly fear about inventory and my health. I have recently started looking into sharing space with established woodworking shops.

Since we also do the digital game development, I’ve been looking for opportunities that set Woodpenny apart from other studios. Lately I’ve been experimenting more with audio inspired digital media and games. I would love to build the studio with a focus on sound design and music which isn’t as prominent in the industry with the exception of a few great games, such as (but not limited to) Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I want to make games where music is what drives the game.

JO: What’s the most satisfying moment you’ve had working on building Woodpenny?

PK: Hard question because it’s all satisfying: Selling my first board, landing my first project, completing my first project, receiving my first paycheck and figuring out a team. All of this is worth a thousand years of education. Every project is satisfying in its own right.

I just love my work and the people I work with. I love learning new tools and playing with new technology and approaches. Probably the most satisfying aspect is that now I can still make cool projects and have a flexible schedule to spend time with my family. I’ve made that a priority from the start.

JO: Can you give our readers some hints about what Woodpenny is working on? I mean Digital AND Physical? Are you developing the Matrix?

PK: So after making the board for Ben Sollee, he ended up reaching out about game development and was interested in looking for ways to connect his music, merch or stage show with different approaches to gaming or interactive media.

Which brings me to my current project. I’m extremely excited about a Virtual Reality music app we’re making with Ben Sollee! Since August, we’ve been developing a Virtual Reality animated music video choreographed to new music by Ben called ‘The Vanishing Point’. We launched our IndieGoGo campaign about 2 weeks ago and deep in the crowdfunding campaign madness.

When we started, I thought developing the app would be the tough part, but it’s not! It’s the constant push of balancing social marketing, creating videos, tweaking the campaign, pestering friends and family and mainly educating people about what we’re actually making. Explaining VR is extremely difficult to people who haven’t tried it as it’s one of those things that you need to experience to “get”. It’s such a powerful medium for games, but also music and cinema. I’m really excited to see how VR (and Augmented Reality) will influence the various forms of digital media out there.

For those interested, please check out our IndieGoGo campaign! We need your help!

I am still working on the Woodpenny boards and hope to release them in a greater capacity at some point in the near future.

While we’re also just trying to get our act together, we just applied to the Valley Venture Mentors Accelerator program and are looking for recommendations and support. If you’re interested in helping us succeed please click this link and support what we’re doing!

JO: We got a chance to watch people play Woodpenny at a PVGD meetup. It was interesting, and the board was super pretty! We’re now getting the impression from your Facebook page (we are snooping but it is for journalism) that each board is unique. Is this a made-to-order board game?

PK: I make about 4 boards a year (again slow process). Each time I learn something new about the process. The game is called Woodpenny basketball. It’s based of a game my Dad made that my family had growing up. I still have and cherish the original board. The idea is simple, it’s a 2-player game where all you need is the board and a penny to play. Like basketball rules, players take turn flicking the penny toward their goal to score points (2 and 3 point shots like basketball). The first one to 21 wins.

About 6 years ago, I decided to make some as gifts for friends and family and realized just how much fun they are to make. Also, as a parent I realized how important it is to have non-digital or plastic toys and games. My goal is to make the boards attractive, durable and fun for families for years. I feel like I’m on the right path there, now just to figure out how to improve my process (and maybe take on less digital work for a few months).

JO: Wait wait you made Ben Sollee a custom game board? We just saw that. Ben Sollee is great, he’s so nice. Why did he want a custom Woodpenny board?

PK: Haha, yeah. I met Ben in March after seeing him perform at the Iron Horse. I brought one of my boards for our table to play while we waited for the show to start. After the show, Ben saw the board and we got to talking. He asked for my business card, I thought out of courtesy. Well about 3 weeks later, he reached out and asked about getting a board!

Here’s Ben’s board!

JO: Is Woodpenny your sole project at the moment?

PK: Financially yes? I have a lot of hobbies. I have a family. I own a house. I have the Pioneer Valley Game Developers. I have a lot going on, but that seems to be the way I function best. Mainly just trying to make Woodpenny the most flexible and satisfying experience I can for myself, team and family.

JO: Do you remember what got you interested in playing games?

PK: Honestly, patterns & sequences. My brain loves searching for patterns that connect at an emotional level. Maybe it’s the rewiring of my brain that occurred playing Atari and Nintendo at a young age, and if so I’m very grateful. I know a lot of game developers / enthusiasts that like analyze the games they play. They like to pick them apart in a more academic approach to understanding the mechanics. Which is totally cool, but not how my brain works.

For me, I let the experience drive the games I play and develop. When working at HitPoint, often times our clients would request game designs that were similar to other popular games. We want Angry Birds, we want Bejeweled, we want a Hidden Object game like this, etc. So “for research” I would completely dive into these game examples that weren’t my usual cup of tea. But over the course of a week or two, I would have either completed the game or conquered the mechanics, again looking to connect to the emotional patterns in the design. After fully understanding the experience as a consumer, I felt completely comfortable designing a similar game, in our own style with subtle differences.

JO: Is there any one game you can remember that got you interested in the idea of making your own?

PK: Sam & Max Hit The Road – I’ve wanted to make a unique point and click adventure for a long time. I was blown away when I first played that title. The concept was so weird, the story and art so humorous and the puzzles at many times very frustrating, but super satisfying. I’ve wanted to recreate most of that experience since I started developing games.

JO: If someone was just getting into games, physical or digital, what would you recommend they play?

PK: I’d start them at Atari for a few years. Let them play Colecovision at their friends houses and the arcade once in a while. I’d move them up to Nintendo and run them through the standard titles. After a few years of blowing on NES cartridges I’d move them up to Sega and make them play Toe Jam & Earl and Earthworm Jim. They’d have to save up their money if they wanted the SNES also.

Then I’d sit them down and tell them not to invest their money in the Dreamcast even though it’s going to be wicked awesome. I’d move them on to the Nintendo 64 where they would play Golden Eye, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When they were ready, I’d put them in a dark room at night and make them play Resident Evil by themselves on the Playstation while filming them poop themselves with a VHS camera when they encounter their first zombie or zombie dogs breaking through the windows in the effing hallway. After getting them into the Tony Hawk series, I feel like they’d be ready to fly on their own.

JO: Getting back to the PVGD, have there been any notable local games developed since you started meeting up?

PK: We’ve seen a lot of great projects under development and quite a few that have been released. The most prolific group putting out new games and being active in development has been from the members of the Owl & Raven. Hannah Shaffer, Evan Rowland and Joshua A.C. Newman have been cranking out so many great games among evangelizing their work.

It’s quite impressive to see. I’ve seen a number of great titles from other members mid-development, but am really hoping more people will start showcasing projects where we can start helping each other out whether it’s feedback, testing or collaboration. We have some great talent in the Pioneer Valley.

JO: Are there any local creators you think more people should be paying attention to (besides yourself, obviously)?

PK: Same answer with the above group members from the Owl & Raven, I would love to see more support for what they’re doing. There’s also a few new experimental studios starting up in the area. One to keep an eye on is led by Isaiah Mann. He’s organizing a student run game studio to start in the Fall of 2016 that will be located at Hampshire College. They’ll be presenting at the next MAKE TALK PLAY on November 1st. People should definitely come out and see what that’s all about.

JO: Have you seen any collaborations develop between people who met at a PVGD event?

PK: I’ve seen some collaboration and heard discussions about people wanting to do more. For Woodpenny, we met Jess Winter who runs misclabs at one of our meet-ups early in the year. He’s the lead programmer for the VR project we’re working on. He’s been absolutely fantastic to work with and a complete surprise for finding a local game dev in the area who has been a vital part of this project. We’re working towards fostering more connections and opportunities to encourage collaboration throughout this next year.

JO: Do you have any advice for someone interested in creating games?

PK: Just do it. Use the tools available to you whether it’s Scratch, Unity, Unreal engine or just an analog prototype. Just start with a game mechanic that you would enjoy playing, give yourself some rules and just start exploring. Start talking to people. Ask as many questions as possible. Start thinking about why you like the games you play. Just start. If you want to do this, you have to be able to learn through experience and make great connections along the way. It’s Woodpenny’s philosophy and the Pioneer Valley Game Developers are here to help!

JO: Thank you for your time!

PK: Thank you James!

Remember, support Woodpenny’s IndieGoGo campaign and their entry into the Valley Venture Mentors program! They’re a nice local studio and we can never have too many of those. And be sure to make it out to a MAKE TALK PLAY event! They’re always good times, and there are a ton of intelligent people to talk to at each. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll make fast friends. It will be distressingly delightful.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

So last week we had the pleasure of playing a “hack” of the locally developed and quite roundly well-regarded horror-RPG Dread! In fact, we had the singular experience of playing it with the prolific promulgator of preternaturally purple prose himself, Epidiah Ravochol! It is because of this we were able to learn his darkest secret: when he says you need to make a “pull” from the Tower of Dread, about 40% of the time he says “pool” instead.

So first off: what’s a “hack”? Well, within the tabletop community it’s basically when you look at something that already exists and figure out how to tweak some of the rules and maybe the setting in order to turn it into something similar yet significantly different in feel or mechanics. So in this case, where Dread is kind of a “you are in a standard horror flick with like zombies or a wolfman and an old man who says you ain’t gonna find nothin’ at the old McAlister Place… leastwise nothin’ living” the hack we played is something entirely other.

“The Dread Geas of Duke Vulku” is Dread with a bit more direction and structure, and it provides an interesting contrast. It’s set in a world quite unlike our own, more Strange Fantasy or Fantasy Horror or Basically Like Lovecraft But Better Written Because Things Are Actually Described Using Words.

Because in each situation a player has a known quantity of moves, the many confusing and strange situations are a bit more approachable. Say you happen upon a friendly mill town in which all of the people have sewn-shut eyes. It’s a simple matter of one pull to find out what is dangerous about this, one pull to notice something important, one pull to silently remove yourself from the location, etc. And then, because it’s Dread, you inevitably die from a falling tower. It’s a really fun time and we can’t wait for it to be officially released! Also, buy Dread!

Also! The final ten days of the Woodpenny IndieGoGo campaign for the extremely cool Ben Sollee VR Music Video “Vanishing Point” are here! You should support them, and then get that cool Google Cardboard setup and stare into the awesomeness of the future!

As always, be sure to check out the Weekly Events page! There are a lot of fun things happening this and every week! And don’t forget to check out the updated Book Clubs List!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Celebrate Halloween by creating a tiny house for tiny horrors to nest within! Which actually we guess if you left them out and they got all grody with rot and bacteria, that’d actually just fufill the purpose of the exercise. Neat! Bring your own box or base as a foundation. Call 413-527-9480 or sign up at the Library!

National Novel Writing Month is this November! Forbes Library will be supporting people in the Valley who want to take on the challenge. The Forbes Writer in Residence, Naila Moreira, will host regular “write-ins” during November! At the kickoff party, best-selling novelist Jacqueline Sheehan will inspire writers and answer questions about the writing process!

Writing a novel in a month? That’s a tall order of fries if we’ve ever heard one! Well, maybe you can get motivated and meet that lofty goal with this writing workshop series! Ages 12+, including middle and high school.

Board Games:

Board Games and snacks hosted by the kindly librarian Tim Hayes! There’s going to be Carcassonne at the this one! Carcassone is super fun. Not interested in the featured game? Check out the collection!

Heroclix! You get these little plastic miniature things that are so adorable you can’t even believe it and then you use some rules to fight other groups of little plastic figures and it’s great. It started with just Marvel stuff we’re pretty sure, but now probably has 14 variations of every character you like!

Books:

Cammie McGovern will read from her latest Young Adult title. Told in alternating points of view, this powerful novel is about learning from your mistakes and trying to forgive! Oh, and it’s about the bystander effect to some degree. Sounds like an interesting novel! Books will be available to purchase at the event.

A pair of exciting memoir authors at the Odyssey! Rita Zoey Chin will discuss her book about the sudden onset of severe panic attacks. Over the course of treating them, she has to deal with her own past as a runaway. Mira Bartok confronts schizophrenia in a poignant literary memoir about family and mental illness.

Comics:

Comics! Comics are the best way to transmit information into your brain! Particularly information like “check out this totally sweet alien vista” or “wow, what an awesome fight!” Kids who show up to Modern Myths in costume will get a FREE comic! Delightful! Demand candy as well, kids.

Computers:

A regular meetup to discuss issues related to programming in PHP. We know little about PHP except that it’s famously horrible? Maybe other folks will help minimize that pain. This first meetup will be a place to discuss interests and plan topics for the next few months! Click the event link to join the meetup and see the meeting location!

Entertainment:

Anime! It’s animation, and it generally is a thing that you can watch, should you choose. Many enjoy anime, do you? If so, come hang out at Palmer and talk with fellow fans. Open to teens and young adults 14 and up.

Movies:

The Northampton Committee to Stop War shows “Broken Brotherhood”, the story of a creation of a memorial to Vietnam Veterans at Colgate University. It’s primarily composed of interviews with people who attended in the 60’s, as well as their children. It provides an inter-generational view of a complex war and significant part of history.

Birds are terrifying enough without them actively attacking us. Those little hidden dinosaurs, biding their time. Their capacity for flight allowing them to conduct nefarious business in the skies, where we can’t follow… This screening is free and open to the public!

Amherst Cinema [28 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00pm – 11:00pm

Science Fiction Double Feature Picture Show: Videodrome & The Thing!

Videodrome: a movie that while not always outwardly horrific is absolutely packed with distressing images and implications. The Thing: possibly the best “monster movie”? Tight, psychological thrills with a totally awesome set of practical effects for a totally awesome monster.

Don’t feed them after midnight! Which, really, what does that even mean? Like alright magic shopkeeper, which midnight? Does it respect daylight savings? What if we travel? You’re ridiculous, magic shopkeeper.

Amherst Cinema [28 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 10:00pm – 12:00am

Ghostbusters

Special $5 admission! Ghostbusters, wow! A delightful romp about a team of unregulated capitalist monsters who re-kill our beloved gram-grams and shove them into a hell dimension. A heroic EPA agent stands in their way… but can he defeat these nefarious jerks?

Saturday, October 31st

Amherst Cinema [28 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 10:00pm – 12:00am

Ghostbusters

A second showing of Ghostbusters!

RPGs:

Iceland! It’s… almost the worst place in the world humans have tried to live? We definitely feel like they’ve managed to do a good job with the place but for real it’s one step off from living just in an ice cube. Tell your own story of the discovery and founding of this harsh land!

Create a character! Explore their adventures! Write a book, sort of, but it’s a really confusing to read book with a bunch of points where the protagonist behaves very oddly. Lots of fun, all ages welcome, no experience necessary!

Science:

Monday, October 26th

High Horse [24 North Pleasant St., Amherst, MA] at 6:00pm

SciTech Cafe: How to Navigate Environments with Toxins

How do we know what’s safe? When is a disease in a lab animal relevant to humans? What are we learning about the health impacts of flame-retardant materials? Why do we care about toxicity in snails? Sasha Suvorov, associate professor of Environmental Health Services at UMass Amherst, will tell you!

Archivist Julie Bartlett Nelson will present “Genealogy Treasures” for Family History Month! And you’ll get cookies, how neat is that? Also “archivist” sounds like a fantasy-world occupation.

Video Games:

Sunday, November 1st

The Quarters [8 Railroad St, Hadley, MA 01035] at 7:00pm – 10:00pm

MAKE TALK PLAY: GlowLime Games

Did you know Hampshire College has a student run startup game-development studio? How awesome is that? Hampshire is awesome. Isaiah Mann will be discussing what makes this little studio such a neat idea! Students making real things outside of a classroom. Excellent, and interesting!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

We’ve been talking about Pioneer Valley Game Developers events for a while now. They’re a great group of people who work to bring interesting speakers and fun times to all the hard-working local game developers, and that’s great. But also, they do their own projects sometimes too! Pat King of Woodpenny has a really neat project on IndieGoGo that you should check out! It’s called Vanishing Point and basically it’s a Virtual Reality Music Video Media Experience Cyber 2000 Neuromancer for excellent folk cellist and all around nice person Ben Sollee.

Pat has been working on the project for a while, but it’s now in the home stretch, and it could really use your help to make it across the finish line. Plus, it’s just a really neat thing that you’ll probably like. We got our hands on an early copy a while back and it’s really extremely neat. The Google Cardboard VR is shockingly effective at transporting you to a strange and wonderful environment. Also, the music is great!

We’ve been fans of Ben Sollee for a while now, and we’re kind of blown away that a local developer just happens to be working on something with him!

In other news, be certain to be on the look out for Extra Life events in our Happy Valley! What is Extra Life, you may ask? Well, it’s an annual 24-hour gameathon that takes place on the first Saturday in November (the 7th this year) and raises money for local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. So that means Baystate Children’s Hospital in our case. So basically it’s like a charity marathon, where you sign up and get pledges. Only instead of physical activity, you just play video games until your eyes bleed. Which, we’ve gotta be honest, is a lot more attractive in the winter.

We know that Modern Myths is hosting an Extra Life event that we’re excited about, and we’re almost certain that The Quarters is as well. If you’re interested in getting in touch with the wider organization of Pioneer Valley Extra Life participants, take a look at Extra Life Pioneer Valley!

As always, be sure to check out the Weekly Events page! There are a lot of fun things happening this and every week! And don’t forget to check out the updated Book Clubs List!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Friday, October 23rd

Northampton Academy of Music [274 Main St., Northampton, MA 01060] at 7:30pm

Live Art Magazine

Live Art is a live show structured like a magazine in what we can only imagine is a real confusing experience for anyone born after 1990. But for real it sounds amazing! A bunch of short works by spectacular local and national performers ranging from music to drama to comedy.

Board Games:

Tuesday, October 20th

Palmer Public Library [1455 North Main Street, Palmer, MA 01069]

Kid’s Chess Club

For grades K-6th! No sign ups are necessary. The only thing that is necessary is a whip-smart tactical brain and a willingness to fight in the Integalactic Chess Wars when you prove yourself a prodigy and are recruited by the Chess League.

Superman! Wonder Woman! Pretty much the two persons you would most like to have your back in the DCU. A $20 entry fee will include 1 box of the new Superman/Wonder Woman set, plus there will be prize support!

Books:

Noga Kadman is a researcher and a licensed tour guide whose main interest is exploring the encounter between Israelis and the Palestinian presence in the landscape and history of the country. This book looks at the Palestinian villages depopulated after the conflicts of 1948.

Do you write books for children? Then attend this critique group! There are actually a ton of successful children’s book authors from the area, so you might meet some real pros here. The group will share tips, discuss skills, and read aloud! Facilitated by wonderful human being Nell Wright.

Illustrator Barry Moser and his brother Tommy were both poisoned by their upbrining. But as they grew, they grew apart. By the time they were in their late 50’s, they stopped speaking entirely. This book recalls why they were able to reconcile before it was too late. It also includes fifteen beautiful illustrations.

An evening with Newton Frohlich as he discusses his new novel exploring Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. That guy is apparently at the center of one of those dozens of “what if Shakespeare was a different person wouldn’t that blow your minds” conspiracy theories that we frankly do not get. The book seems to be real neat though! Won a medal, is well-researched.

Gamble Auditorium [Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley MA] at 6:30

Margaret Atwood: “The Heart Goes Last”

Margaret Atwood, author of the extremely well regarded “The Handmaid’s Tale”, will discuss her newest novel. Funny and deeply disturbing, it describes a dystopian near-future where the law-abiding are incarcerated. Fun times!

Mama Iguanas [274 Main St., Northampton, MA 01060 at 6:30pm

The Three-Body Problem Book Discussion and Dinner

A friendly book discussion about recent Hugo Award Best Novel winner The Three-Body Problem! Also of note, that’s the first translated book to win a Hugo we’re pretty sure. Neat!

NaNoWriMo! Basically, you try to write a full novel in November. In all likelihood it’ll be terrible, but the idea is to get yourself creating and hey maybe you can edit into something great! Naila Moreira will be helping you out all month in November, but it’ll kick off with some brainstorming this week!

One of America’s most acclaimed writers, Howard Frank Mosher chronicles the intertwining family histories of the natives, wanderers, outcasts, and fugitives of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. He’ll talk about his latest novel set in the Kingdom!

A friendly game of Quidditch on the back lawn of the library starts off this fun time! Then, move through the library for all kinds of Harry Potter fun. Be sure to sign up at the kids desk to make sure you can attend!

Card Games:

Battle for the Zendikar, a rare and valuable form of yarn. With it, you can weave the web of the universe. Or maybe it’s some kind of musical instrument? Either way, Magic: the Gathering gaming at Modern Myths will be a fun time!

Entertainment:

Tuesday, October 20th

Divas [492 Pleasant St #3, Northampton, MA 01060] at 11:00pm

Games, Geeks and Cosplay Night: Pokemon!

An appropriately horrific cosplay theme for October! Weaponized animal companions forced to fight in order to supply you with the power necessary to ascend to the top of the social ladder! Dress up as a trainer if you’re working on a budget, dress up as Mewtwo if you’ve got psychic powers! It’s $3 before 11:00pm, $8 after. There are neat vendors and a $350 costume contest!

Supernatural Paranormal Investigation Research Investigative Truth Society isn’t just the most tortured backronym we’ve seen in a while, it’s a way to unlock the paranormal in your own life! In the spirit of skeptical inquiry, the Nerd Watch must insist you only believe in spirits and boogeymen for the Halloween season, when it is most entertaining.

RPGs:

Play a 4th-level adventure with the crew at Comics N’ More! New players are always welcome, and you can join in at any session you like. There are pre-made characters available, as well as dice if you need them! Hosted by friendly person Neal Robinson.

Play as a superhero and defeat some villains in this comic-book RPG! You’re a teen attending the Claremont Institute, and you’re trying out for the premier superhero team in the city. Can you make the cut? Join at any session, new players welcome! Hosted by lovely duo Christopher Paton and Nola Leigh!

Science:

Metadata! We’re unironically exhilarated by this topic. So let’s say you’ve got a collection of 100,000 photos? Or really anything at all. What data do people need to know which ones are relevant to their own research? Maureen Taylor will show you how to create useful metadata! Registration is required, but there’s no dang link. So maybe just shout “I’M REGISTERING” as you arrive?

History buffs, rowers, and conservationists will be interested in learning about this canal we totally had never heard of before! It sounds neat. Apparently it is ill-fated, which is unfortunate. But this presentation will get into why it was built, where it was located, and just in general what’s up with the legacy of this huge construction project. Nifty!